Tadpole Farm bid for houses starts

APPLICATIONS to build houses on the Tadpole Farm development have started to be lodged.

Permission was granted to build 1,700 homes on the site in North Swindon last year, along with a primary school, commercial space and shops.

Construction of the primary school was moved forward in order to fulfil a desperate need for places in the area. The school is set to open in September this year.

However, proposals have now been put forward to build the first few rounds of houses. These are known as ‘reserved matters’ applications and are what developers put forward giving details on the building work.

As part of the agreement with the council to build the school, Crest will be permitted to build a number of show homes close to the school.

On top of that, in January a second ‘reserved matters’ application was put in by David Wilson Homes to build a second tranche of 206 homes on the Tadpole Farm site.

At this stage the council’s planning department has not given permission for the homes to be built and a period of public consultation has begun.

The site David Wilson has applied to build on is known as site 1b, and will be close to the primary school.

The site is directly to the east of the proposed school and to the north of land which will be undeveloped, referred to as a public common.

The majority of the houses will have front and rear gardens, with provision in the plans for affordable homes.

A source of contention over the whole construction has been exactly how traffic will reach Tadpole Farm. A key condition of the development was that all construction traffic should gain access to the site via a specially built road leading off Ermin Street.

However, as it would not be completed in time for the school, permission was granted last month for the traffic to travel along Tadpole Lane, which is currently closed so it can be upgraded to cope with the additional lorries.

Permission for traffic to use this route has been given until December this year when the access route is likely to be built, so even if permission is given it is likely that construction will not begin until 2015 at the earliest.

To comment on the plans, visit the council’s planning portal at www.swindon.gov.uk/planning and search for code S/RES/ 14/0119.